Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1887-03-23

pons must be proven to be genuine before
they can be received, and this was held no
to be an unreasonable requirement (AntoD
cs. Greenhow.) Under this proceeding the
taxpayer had to make an initiative tender
OF coupons for the taxes, and then file his
petition, prove his coupons, and recover the
| money f'Om the Treasurer but in Poi1
dexter Us. Greenhow it was held that the
tender of genuine coupons was payment
and that the collecting officer, if he subse-
ouently levies, is trespasser and liable
for damages. The taxpayer can stand OR
his tender and wait the action of the officer,
and if he goes further, can subject him to
the cost and annoyance of suit in the
Federal courts.
Let us change the position and let the
Commonwealth take the initiative. This
can be done by instituting suit to recover
| the taxes and giving the taxpayer a day
In court to prove his coupons to be genuine
and to make good his tenders. He should
not object, for in making the tender he as
sumes the responsibility of the genuineness
of the coupons. and this affords him an op-
portunity of proving it,
therefore have the honor to recommend
the passage of an act providing that all
taxes, including tares on licenses now due
|
Commonwealth in payment of which any
paper or instrument purporting to be a
coupon detached from bond of this State,
shall have been or may hereafter be ten
dered and not accepted as payment and
not otherwise paid, may be recovered in
tie Circuit Court having jurisdiction over
the county or corporation in which said
taxes shall have been assessed ; or if the
tender was made to the Auditor of Public
Accounts in payment of taxes which he is
authorized by law to receive, the said taxes
may be recovered in the Circuit Court of
the city of Richmond, the courts to have
jurisdiction without regard to the amount
of taxes claimed and though the amount
| be less than twenty dollars, and if the de-
fendant fails in his defence and the taxes
claimed are found to be due the State,
| there shall be Judgment for the Common
wealth for the aggregate amount of the
taxes due to the State thereon from the
| time they become due until the date of the
| judgment, with interest ON the said aggre-
gate amount from the date of the Judgment
until the payment and costs. Every such
judgment shall be docketed as prescribed
by law In other cases. The Auditor of
Public Accounts only shall be authorized
to receive payment of any such Judgment,
and no execution shall issue thereon until
he directs it.
The passage of the substance of law
such as have outlined with the attending
machinery to put it in motion, will be car
rying out the plain theory of the act ap-
proved February 18th, 1882, and it is hoped
will prove effective.
In connection with the revenues of the
State, | beg leave respectfully to call your
attention to recent decision of the Su-
preme Court of the United States, affirming
that law imposing a tax upon sample
merchants, although it applies to our own
citizens as we'll as nen-residents, is nncon-
stitutional so far as it affects the latter.
Interpreting this decision, as given by the
public priuts-not having seen the exact
text-the States annual revenue will be
decreased and provision will have to be
made for the deficit. The sample-mer-
chants license for the fiscal year ending
September 3Oth, 1886, aggregated $67, 300
More important than this decrease of rev.
snue is the position in which it places our
own merchants. 1t should be the duty of
the Legisla,u, g to give every protection 70
citizens of Virginia, so as to prevent a
competition on unequal terms between our
home merchants aud manufacturers, and
those who pay no taxes to the support of
the State government. 1t is difficult and
grave question, and it may be necessary
for the Legislature to adapt all our license
laws to this new condition of affairs.
have the honor to transmit as bearing
accompanying letter from Mr.. Charles
O'Leavy, secretary of the Council of
Foreign Bsndholders, and also copy of
the resolutions which accompanied it and
which were adopted at the meeting of the
Virginia bondholders, convened by the
Council of Foreign Bondholders and held
in Londen on the gath of September, 1885,
am informed by the counsel representing
that Association in this country that they
own or practically control all the consol
and ten-forty bonds, and that he therefore
believes that the great bulk of them is now
held in Great Britain. am also in receipt
of copy of cablegram to their counsel,
bearing date London, March 8, 1887, and
saying Council and committee certainly
con rol English bondholders. Any official
intimation of Governments desire to treat
with Council on basis of September resolu-
tiOns for exclusive benefit of bonds and
coupons deposited with Council will insure
the deposit of whole" The resolutions
referred to in the letter of the secretary of
the Council of Foreign Bondholders asserts
"steaafast determination not to accept
the Riddleberger settlement" but express
sas "a willingness to meet the State and
entertain a reasonable compromise based
upon the present taxation and the available
revenue after providing for the constitu-
tional appropriations for Government
schools and other public expenditure.
The State has expressed a ''steadfast de-
termination" to adhere to the Riddleberger
settlement aud does not admit her ability,
'based upon the present taration," to pay
more principal and interest than that set
tlement demands, and claims that her an
nual revenue will be absorbed by such
amount added to her other necessary ex-
penses. The question of the financial abil-
ity of the State woald seem then to be the
sole point of difference between the Com
monwealth and her creditors, or, in other
words, how much can the State pay with
out increasing her taxes? l repeat my
former recommendation for the appoint
ment of commission whose duty it shall
be to demonstrate to similar commission
from the bondholders the exact facts and
figures which make up the States reve-
nues and expenditures, and point out not
only what is ''the available revenue after
providing for the constitutional appropria-
tions for government, schools aud other
public expenditures, but demonstrate to
them what revenue remains after the reg
ular annual legislative appropriations, and
which are not included in constitutional ap-
preparations. The duties of such commits
sion should be plainly defined, their powers
carefully prescribed, guarded and limited,
that no misconception be indulged in on the
part of any one. Such a commission should
only be empowered to explain the settle
ment of 1881 and 1882 to the creditors, and
point out that which addresses itself to their
interests, as well as to the interests of the
State. 1t should be clothed with no other
power, and have no other duties to perform,
but to urge them to the settlement Virginia
has decreed, to represent how futile had
been their effort in the past to resist the de-
termination of our people, and that the fu
ture held out to them only the prospect of
interminabe litigation, injurious alike to
them and to us; that the achievement of
mere illusory triumphs in the courts, are
fraught with no substantial advantages to
the litigants ON either side. 1t should be
the duty of the commission to point out to
j